You now own a ! Now try to speedrun her freedom.

When John left The Silver Collar, he was honestly at a loss of what to do. He was officially a **** owner, with not only the contract that sat heavy in his inventory confirming it, but his very own character sheet confirming such right below his name.

Then to add salt onto the wound, he also had a pop up that demanded his attention since he placed his hand upon that damned contract.

This whole debacle was disgusting, and the fact that John had such a class and such skills in his character sheet would be like an eternal black mark that would be forever impossible to scrub away. He owned a person. He actually owned another person, the same way that one would own an animal. No, not an animal. If John were to own a dog or cat, he wouldn’t get a skill where he can use the dog or cat to bodyblock a blow meant for him. This class, these skills, they just cemented the idea that the person he now owned was meant to be treated like nothing more than an object. A tool to be used and abused.

But he had to pick one of the skills. So, without much thought, he selected the first one. It sounded the least offensive to his sensibilities. The second one reminded him far too much of **** drivers forcing cotton picking, and the third one just seemed… wrong. At least if Thesaphine and he could get along, maybe that skill would let her kill the other **** drivers with even more efficacy.

Oh. Shit. Thesaphine.

John turned to look at the lamia, and had to blink in surprise as what he saw was not what he expected. He had expected to see the greek-themed lamia behind him, clad in the **** Leia bikini that she had been wearing in Francis’ office. What he saw instead was the same top half, but rather than a snake tail…

“How… did you get legs?”

Thesaphina did not meet his gaze, keeping her eyes low and head slightly bowed. “Magic, master. All demi-humans are taught how to hide our more unhuman aspects as to not terrify mundanes when we are out of illusion barriers or our own home worlds.”

“Okay, first off. The whole ‘master’ thing… no.”

“I’m… sorry?”

“I don’t want to be a **** owner,” John explained, digging for the correct words as he spoke. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to have that happen and certainly would prefer if I wasn’t one.”

“Have I displeased you already, master?” Thesaphina asked sadly.

“No! No no no, it’s not you! I just find the whole idea of slavery one of the most abhorrent and disgusting institutions out there, and the fact that I am now a part of that system is just… gross.”

Thesaphine raised her head, actually looking John in the eyes with confusion and hesitation. “You... then why did you accept to become my owner?”

John looked past her, to where the illusion barrier currently sat that they both had just left. “I need to figure out how that guild works, and how I can free everyone in there. That way not a single **** will be in that damned barrier when I burn it to the ground.” John clenched his fist, when another thought struck him. “Oh! Speaking of, how do I free you?”

Thesaphine cocked her head to the side. “You… you can’t.”

“Bullshit. There’s gotta be a way to free you.”

“No, there isn’t. At least, not a way that I know of,” Thesaphine said softly. “Sigils are complicated, and even if you were able to get rid of your part of the sigil, the other part that Master Beauregard has would remain.” Thresaphine bowed her head once again. “Please, just… just let it go. I am your **** and you are my master. Just accept that and move o-”

“No. No, I can’t do that,” John interrupted. “I refuse to think there isn’t a way to free you from that thing!” John leaned up against a wall, running a hand through his hair while he thought. “Maybe… Maybe Erik knows something. Or Robert or Danny. Hell, Moira might know something about these sigils. Maybe one of them knows some form of counter magic.”

“Why do you care so much?” Thesaphine asked.

John looked at her, genuinely confused. “Why wouldn't I? You deserve freedom. And I want to help you and every other **** in that guild get the freedom you deserve.”

“But… But I’m just a lamia. I’m a ****! I… I…” Then, oddly enough, Thesaphine started to laugh. A bitter defeated laugh, but laugh nonetheless. “I can’t believe this. Eleven years spent dreading the day I finally get made into a ****, then told I am being bought by two of the worst men in the whole guild. Then I kill my friend on accident, only to suddenly get told my new master wants to reward me with fucking FREEDOM!” Her smile then vanished as she looked back up to John with almost a cold dead stare. “You know I’m a monster, right? You saw what I looked like, you know these legs are just a trick of magic. I’m a snake, a monster who could crush you in her coils or poison you with her venom. And you really think I deserve to be free?!”

John nodded. “No one deserves to be a ****.”

“None of us deserve it. But some of us are doomed to be that way,” Thesaphine spat out. “My people have been captured for centuries, sold to the highest bidder to be everything from laborers to warriors to sex toys. Even if you free me, it won’t change anything.”

“Then I guess I’m going to have to free a lot more slaves,” John said as he raised his fist. “And take out a lot more slavers.”

Thesaphine shook her head in disbelief, but didn’t say anything. After a few moments though, she spoke up again, “What should I call you? Clearly ‘master’ is something you despise, so what should I call you?”

John smirked, crossing his arms. “Well, my name is John Newman. So you could call me John. But considering I am a **** owner, you may wanna call me something worse on the principle of the matter.”

Thesaphine gave out a short and bitter laugh. “What if I wanted to call you ‘asshole,’ huh?”

“Can I at least be Mr. Asshole?”

Thesaphine laughed again, but this time it sounded much more genuine. “No, no, John is fine. I’ll call you John.” She took in a deep breath, and walked a bit closer to John. “My name is Thesaphine.”

“Alright, Thesaphine,” John said, offering a hand to her. “Wonderful to meet you.” As the two of them shook hands, with John noticing how cold her skin was, he then gestured to the streets behind him. “Now, what say we go talk to a couple of my friends? I think one of them might be able to help us get rid of that damn sigil.”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

John took a step back from the doorway, hands clasped behind his back. He and Thesaphine were able to get to the bar uninterrupted and, upon explaining the situation to Robert, had been directed to speak with Erik. Robert knew a lot of people in the Abyss, but even he was stumped on how to undo a sigil as complicated as a **** sigil. Those things, in his own words, were a “bullshit amount of failsafes and interconnected spells” and he didn’t know anyone who could undo those.

The door slowly creaked open, with Erik standing there in his apartment/lodging thing in a bathrobe and a glare that could kill. However, upon seeing John and Thesaphine, his expression softened to concern and confusion. “Kid? What are you doing here? And who's the lamia?” He then looked between the two of them before leaning in close to John. “Shit, don't tell me you… didn’t your parents teach you about safe sex?”

“Wh- No! No, this isn’t,- I mean she isn’t- We aren’t-” John stuttered. He then took a deep breath and recollected himself. “Look, we are in a bit of trouble. Well, she is. And we need your help.”

“Who is she? And what kind of trouble?”

Thesaphine slithered forward. “My name is Thesaphine, and I am John’s ****.”

Silence followed, with Erik looking even more confused before stepping to the side. “Maybe you should explain.”

John and Thesaphine stepped (and slithered) in, and so John began to tell Erik what had happened. He even threw in the fight with Frank, to partially let Erik know how strong John had become and also to explain why he was so quick to do something so potentially dangerous as going into a random illusion barrier. Oddly enough, as John told his story, Erik did not react or speak all that much. He would ask a clarifying question now and then, but said or did little else. Just listened.

“... So I put my hand on the contract, read the words right above where my name was to be signed, and now I am a **** owner. I even got an update to my class because of it.”

“Your class?” Thesaphine asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” John replied.

Erik took in a deep breath, his hands clasped together as he seemingly stared out at nothing. “Alright, so, let's get a couple of things settled first,” Erik said, turning to look at Thesaphine. “First of all, I will go downstairs and talk with Robert. We will get you one of the spare rooms to sleep in, free of charge. It should have some basic furniture, but anything you want, just talk to me and we will get it for you.”

Thesaphine’s eyes went wide in surprise. “I… You… What?”

“I’ll also have to talk with Danny and make sure we don't have any other members of The Silver Collar show up to the bar. Or if any do, that we turn them away subtly and quietly. Once we get that sigil off you, we can’t risk one of the members figuring that out and trying to take you back.”

Thesaphine was seemingly stunned into silence, so Erik turned to John. “As for you… I’m proud of you, kid.”

“You… You are?”

Erik nodded. “You did what was right. Beating down that owner and not using any of the slaves, and joining the guild just so you could take it down? I’m proud. I know how rough it can be to be your age and be tempted to… indulge in more carnal things, so the fact that you kept to your morals should be commended. With that said…” Erik reached over and lightly bonked John on the head.

-2 HP

“You’re an absolute idiot! You should consider yourself lucky that the guild you found was only a demi-human slaver’s guild! Imagine if you ran into a mana factory or a slaver’s guild that took humans as captives! You’ve learned how to punch, but that doesn’t make you invincible, kid!”

“I told you, I was overconfident from my fight with Frank!” John protested. “Besides, I probably could have pulled something out of my butt to get away if-”

“No, don’t think like that,” Erik interrupted. “You have bullshit powers, but relying on bullshit to save your ass is going to just get you into something you can’t get out of. You are going to be more careful and you are going to stay safe, or else I will tell your mother and get you grounded for the next 57 years. Are we clear?”

“Since when have you talked to my mom?!”

“I said, ARE WE CLEAR?!”

John sighed. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now, let's get to the good news.” Erik stood up and walked over to a small bookshelf, pulling off a rather old looking book. “So, while I don’t know how to undo any sigil, let alone something as complicated as an enslavement sigil, I do know that the Order happens to have the countermagic to undo those.”

“Wait, really?” Thesaphine asked. “How? Why? Can we get an Order mage here to undo it?”

“Well, they have them in the event that an owner of a **** guild dies or is arrested and the slaves need to have the sigils removed. Or in the event they seize the property of a **** owner due to him being arrested and they are unsure if the **** can be released back into the custody of the guild leader due to legal questions.” Erik flipped through the book, reading it quickly as his expression soured. “Yeah, just as I thought. Order rules state that they cannot get involved unless an actual crime has been committed."

“Fucking hell,” John muttered. “So we are back to square one then?”

“Not necessarily,” Erik said. “We might be able to get your bullshit powers to do their bullshittery and teach you how to undo a sigil.”

John pondered that, leaning back in the chair he was sitting in. It was possible, though it might be difficult to do. “I would need something to teach me the basics of the magic, just like how I learned my Brawler class. But I doubt we could get any Order mages to teach me.”

“What if they had a book or something you could learn from?” Thesaphine asked. “I don’t know how your magic works, other than it being bullshittery apparently, but would that work as a form of ‘teaching?’”

“It might,” John said. “I honestly haven’t tried learning magic from a book yet. But how would we get our hands on a book like that.”

“You could break into the Brighton manor,” Erik proposed. “Find a book that way.”

“And lose my good relationship with Moira and the Order in one fell swoop. What if I just asked her to bring me a book on it?”

Erik didn’t offer a rebuttal, simply shrugging at the idea. “Could work, but if she were to actively help you free Thesaphine, it would be technically illegal. You’ll have to skirt around what you actually need.”

‘Right, subtle,’ John thought, pulling out his phone and pulling up Moira’s number to shoot her a text.

'Perfect,’ John thought with a smile, sliding his phone away. “Message sent.”

“Wonderful,” Erik said, rubbing his eyes. “Now I’m fucking exhausted. You need to get home, John. Thesaphina, I’ll talk to Robert in the morning. For now, take my bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t poss-”

“No buts. You’re taking the bed,” Erik said, cutting Thesaphine off. “John, we will talk more in the morning. But know this: your training is going to go into overdrive from now on. You said that Francis was, what, six times stronger than you?” John nodded, to which Erik responded with, “Then we need to work six times as hard to get you ready to kick his ass. Now go home.”

John thanked Erik, and gave Thesaphine a short but friendly goodbye. It was clear that the exhaustion of the day was starting to catch up to him, as his body was starting to grow heavier with each passing second. He quickly made his way home, though he couldn’t really remember half of it as he walked from point to point on autopilot. By the time he really regained conscious thought, he found himself safe and secure at home. One quick unlocking of the front door later and a trip up the stairs, John was soon face down on his bed. He managed to at least take his shirt off before collapsing, but anything else was to be left for tomorrow.

Though as his mind shifted from the realm of the conscious to the dream-like state of unconsciousness, he swore he could hear something tapping on his window.